The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Interiors 1946 Chevy pickup steering wheel nut

Going to pull steering wheel off to replace mast bearing/wire to get horn working. Do you recommend spraying/tapping for a few days till I work it loose or would impact wrench be ok? Thanks

I took the steering wheel off my truck a few years ago. I have no reason to believe it had ever been off the column since the truck was built.

It came right off with no struggle at all. I had a puller from Advance Auto attached to it but it really wasn't necessary. Like you, I thought it was going to be rusted in place or something so I applied PB Blaster prior to attempting removal. Maybe it helped but I think it would have come right off regardless.

You should not need an impact wrench on the single nut holding it in place. Just use a proper steering wheel puller so you don't damage anything.

Thanks. I’ll soak for a few days and give it a whirl.

Ponchogl - While your applying some of your chosen lubricant to the steering wheel nut, may be give a little shot to the screw that holds the horn wire retaining plate on the top side of your steering column under the dash. My previous experience has found that screw to be usually tough to remove due to some rust corrosion that forms over the years. A dab of "juice" will help it come out when the time to remove that plate for the mast bearing/horn wire replacement.

The plate and screw look like what is pictured below.

Thanks. I didn’t know about that screw. I will definitely hit it up with lubricant. The nut come loose without too much effort. The steering wheel also came off in less than a turn. Every thing is going good. Don’t have new bearing quite yet but any tips on getting old bearing out. Looks like I have easy part done! Thanks

Here's a very early Legacy "Tech Tip" on Horn Wire and Mast Bearing Replacement that give a good description of the process. If you use the Stovebolt Search Link you can look for and read already existing posts on the topic that often will have pictures and more descriptions to help you with your task. Good luck and keep asking questions. We are here to help.

Gdads51, thanks for the link😎. I was looking for the plate and screw above. Checking if that is on a 46? If it is it is already off. I’ll have to feel around for a hole and then buy a bracket if I can find one.

Can you provide a picture of where your horn wire comes out of the steering column? I couldn’t see any existing wire in those pics.

It’s about 3/4 of inch long. There is just a small hole about 1/4 inch where it comes out. Not much to connect to when pulling it out. Thanks for tip sheet again. Bearing is coming out slow and gentle.

Gotcha on the wire exit point. Clearly the 1941-46 steering column and horn wire run are different than the AD series trucks (aka my brain was stuck thinking AD and not Art Deco - duh). Glad to hear the other info is helpful.

So I am working on getting my mast bearing out. Not going as well as I hoped. I was chiseling the brass lip up thinking the bearing was coming up…just fooling myself. So I have been working on removing some of the rubber, getting it up and out. I saw a post on another site where a guy was able to fish a wire under bearing and remove bearing with the wire and a puller. I have a few pullers, non narrow enough to get between column and bearing. I was looking for smaller puller on the internet but no luck. The arms need to be about 1/8” but then maybe not very sturdy to pull bearing up. I think the bearing could be rusted to steering shaft. I didn’t try the screw trick yet have to buy some. I have been spraying pb blaster near shaft to possibly help loosen and rust. Anyone with other tricks I could try. Thanks

When I overhauled my steering gear (1951),I used the shaft to tap it out after removing sector gear and the lower bearing cup. Don’t know if you steering gear is similar. If the steering wheel turned, then you can be pretty sure the bearing isn’t frozen to the shaft.

Just going by your visual of the current old mast bearing condition, the screws into the bearing look to be about the only other viable option besides Kevin's suggestion above IMHO.

Thanks guys. I tried drilling and I must have cheap bits! Not ready to pull shaft out quite yet. Tried some space screws but that seems to be pushing everything down. I have been bending the brass lip back and forth and able to break off small pieces with a durable screwdriver. Also removing bearing balls one at a time. Got last ball out last night and inner part of bearing come loose(was rusted to column) and was able to remove that. I am unable to get outer piece loose to turn but I think I’m on my way with inner out. I will have an interesting picture of pieces when out.

Well I won, lots of breaking small pieces and chisel. Bearing was rusted to shaft and rubber appeared to be stuck severely to column. No damage inside.

Good Job! I didn't realize the bearing was a ball bearing, although I should have known after having mine out. There was a brass sleeve between the inner race of the bearing and the shaft on my column, so for it to rust to the shaft must have meant that the sleeve was missing on yours or the corrosion was worse than it looked.

BTW, if you're going to add pics, please add some light to the subject. Hard to see what's in that last pic of yours.

Sorry about the light. Will fix that next time. Just have to clean out the column now. I see a lot of grease inside there by gearbox where the wire comes out. I was going shove a rag soaked with wd40 to clean that before reinstalling bearing and wire.

With the rust and whatever you're seeing, I would go ahead and tear down the whole steering gear and clean it up and refresh it. A teardown and rebuild isn't that involved, but is a little bit of a job to get it out of the truck. I'll bet that the sector seal is leaking and there's a nice crust of oil and dirt in that area.

Thanks. So things are pretty clean in the column. Just a small amount of grime at the bottom just above gearbox. Bearing was ok to start with and there is a little bit of play in steering wheel going down the road so I think for now I’m going to leave it alone. Maybe some boring winter I can pull column off another day. My main goal was to get the bearing out and wire replaced, get steering wheel off and back on with new horn button assembly on. Then I can work on the horn itself. Spring is here. One good rain to get rid of any leftover salt and my seat is being recovered and should be done soon. Then I can cruise around.

There was a spring under steering wheel and the correct one above it under horn button. I think bottom one was placed by accident. I don’t really see a purpose for that. So I will leave that out. Looking at pictures of horn assemblies I don’t see 2 springs same size like it was.

The first spring was not put there by accident.

There is supposed to be a spring that goes on the shaft before the steering wheel is installed.

The spring under the steering wheel pushes on a tapered bushing that serves to tighten the clearance between the shaft and the inner race of the bearing. At least that's the way it was on AD series trucks.

Great, thanks for clearing that up for me. I was hoping that it was supposed to be there. I couldn’t see it on any diagrams. Experience is very helpful with these old trucks.

Little late to join in, but I simply used a slide hammer and extra long right angle hook and my 88 year old bearing gave up the ghost for replacement but I had it out of the truck

Got her all back together. Bearing went with a few taps. Thanks for the advice. Steering still works. Have to work on horn next but later this summer. Went for the first ride of year tonight. Was fun.